Page 10 of Shadowed Rubies
I shook my head, forcing the thought away from my brain. Nothing would happen to either woman. I couldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t be able to live with knowing that I hadn’t been able to help them in time.
Ignoring the pain of the ever-widening blister in my boot, I picked up the pace. I needed to cover as much ground as possible before nightfall. Dani and Molly were probably frightened half-to-death. The last thing they needed was to spend an entire night in Kevin’s evil clutches.
My voice was growing hoarse from yelling for the women, but that didn’t stop me. When I heard a rustling noise not far behind me, I whirled around.
“Molly?” The hopeful tone of my voice was immediately replaced with disappointment when I saw Meg moving through the brush toward me. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Yes, it’s me, plus a whole slew of others. We’re going to find them, Max, but we need to be logical in our searching. Your random wandering isn’t helping matters.” Even though Meg’s words seemed judgmental, her tone was understanding.
I ran a hand through my hair and looked up at the light gray sky. Logically, I knew she was right, but my frantic heart needed to keep moving and looking for my sister. My voice sounded desperate when I said, “Wehaveto find her.”
“We will.” Meg sounded confident, so I forced myself to trust in her calm strength.
She radioed to the rest of the party that she had found me and for them to continue with their grid pattern, then she gave me instructions on how to proceed with my search. It was tempting to tell the stubborn woman that I was striking off on my own again to find Molly, but instead, I listened and nodded my understanding of her plan.
When I set off in the prescribed pattern, I had only taken about twenty steps when I saw something lime green on the ground. Shouting for Meg, I said, “I found the keys to Molly’s Jeep!”
Stooping down, I investigated the area around the dropped keys for any further clues. Although it was reassuring to find something that let us know we were on her trail, I knew Molly wouldn’t have dropped the keys to her pride and joy, if she wasn’t in dire need of help.
13
Dani
Molly tried to sit up, but her head lolled to the side and she flopped back down on her back. I wondered if she was really that woozy, or if she was simply trying to convince Kevin she was out of it. I sure hoped it was the latter and that she had some brilliant escape plan brewing.
When I saw her eyes roll back into her head, I realized that the chances of her faking to this extreme were pretty slim. I was the one who would need to figure out a way to get us free from this madman.
“This woman needs medical attention,” I tried.
Kevin said simply, “You.”
“Right, but she needs more than I can do out here. I need supplies and equipment to be able to properly help her.”
“You.” He said again, and I knew that rationalizing with him was a losing battle. We were going to have to figure out how to survive with what was available to us in this cave. If Kevin Durley could make it out here for months with a traumatic brain injury, then Molly and I would find a way to deal with our less than ideal circumstances.
The realization that with each passing day we spent in this cave, the weather would become colder and less hospitable had me shivering, despite the relatively warm early-November temperature. Winter was coming, and I couldn’t imagine having to hunker down to survive the elements in this dank prison that Kevin apparently called home.
Molly moaned and shifted her head from side to side. If the woman was faking her misery, she deserved an Academy Award for acting. She was likely in serious pain, and I needed to come up with a way to help her. She simplycouldn’tdie on my watch. I would never be able to forgive myself, if she did.
Changing angles with Kevin, I said, “You can keep me as your prisoner, but Molly needs better medical care than I can give her out here. She needs to be taken to the hospital.”
“You.” Kevin demanded.
“That seems to be your new favorite word,” I mumbled only half under my breath. Raising my voice to speak directly to him, I added, “I can’t do anything to help her. She needs us to get her to a hospital.”
Kevin’s face turned a frightening reddish-purple, and I suddenly knew I had pushed him too far. Proving that point, he flicked the blade of his knife out and pointed it furiously in my direction before yelling, “You!”
“Okay, okay. Me. I’m on it. I’ll take the best care of her I can,” I promised.
Even though it wasn’t much of a reassurance, it seemed to somewhat calm his agitation. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the blade snick back into place, indicating that he had closed the knife.
Brushing Molly’s hair back away from her face, I decided to hum a bit to help ease all of our jittery nerves. Since the only song I could think of was the one my father had sung to me whenever I was sick, I started humming a quiet version of “You are my Sunshine.”
When the song came to an end, the cave seemed even more eerily quiet than it was before. Kevin was resting back on his sleeping bag, which made me wonder if he might have fallen asleep, until he said the word, “Again.”
That was four words we were up to now. Perhaps his vocabulary wasn’t as limited as I had previously believed. He sure seemed to be able to get his point across when he wanted to.
I must have pondered his verbalism for too long because he uttered the order once more, but in a louder, gruffer tone. “Again!”
